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Stephanie Bochenek Kentucky

I’m Stephanie Bochenek, a 22 year old Kentucky resident, originally from Hamilton, ON. I recently graduated from Michigan State University, where I was a five year student-athlete. All my life I have had a passion for sports, usually playing multiple sports at once, including soccer, basketball, track, badminton, and volleyball. In my first four years at Michigan State, I rowed on the varsity rowing team and my fifth year I threw javelin. I have always thought that I was living a “healthy” lifestyle, but last summer I was diagnosed with a heart defect and I realized that some things you just can’t control.

I have a bicuspid aortic valve, which is a heart defect I was born with. This is when the aortic valve only has two leaflets that open and close each beat instead of the normal three leaflets. The doctors also found that my aortic root was big enough to be considered an aneurysm, so I was scheduled for a CT scan and told to stop doing anything strenuous. Everything I do revolves around strenuous activities and training, but for those three weeks I thought that I would never be able to do the things that I love to do again. You can imagine how hard it would be to have everything you’ve worked so hard for and all the dreams you have for the future taken away from you in an instant. I started thinking about ways I could stay involved in sports, especially in rowing as a coach. When I left the clinic after my test and diagnosis, I immediately decided to leave everything up to God. Doing that helped me find peace and strength in my reality.

This past year, since my diagnosis, my life has been amazing in many ways. The CT results showed that the current stage of my condition wasn’t as bad as originally thought, so I was cleared to continue what I was doing before. I feel so blessed to be able to keep doing what I love despite my condition. After I was cleared, I was able to work everything out to join the track team at Michigan State and throw javelin. This experience has helped me become more aware that so many people are born every day with heart defects. Some may never know it, but a lot of them will have to fight every day to live because their defects are so severe that they require surgery and other treatments, even at a very young age.

What am I doing in Kentucky, you ask? Well, long story short, I moved down here in August to hopefully find a job in Richmond because, for some reason I don’t know, I felt like this was where my next step was. I decided that I wouldn’t know if it was true unless I came here and gave it a shot.

Warning that sippy cups were one of the worst inventions ever created, Vermont pediatrician Dr. Barb Frankowski recently urged House Ways and Means Committee members to take action to tax sugary drinks to fight obesity and improve dental health.

A portion of her testimony is excerpted below:

What do I see in my office? Children drinking sugary beverages almost all the time. I see it in the baby’s bottles and in the toddlers’ sippy cups. Children and adolescents come in toting 20 ounce containers of everything from colas to sweetened iced teas to Gatorade. How have we become such a thirsty nation?

Of course, the obesity epidemic is extremely complicated, and we can’t blame it all on sugary beverages. BUT – sugary beverages do play an extremely significant role.

Here are some facts:

Consumption of sugar sweetened beverages has increased 500% in the past 50 years, and is not the single largest category of caloric intake in children, surpassing milk in the late 1990s

A person who drinks one can (only 12 oz) of soda a day would gain 15 lbs in a year

Pure liquid sugar also does not “fill us up” or induce satiety, the same way that fast food (that also contains fat and protein) does. These empty calories do not make us feel full. Therefore, there is inadequate calorie compensation - people are more likely to drink these extra calories in addition to other foods they are eating, rather than instead of these foods.

What is the burden of obesity from the medical point of view? Well, we all know about diabetes and cardiovascular disease. I do see some diabetes and hypertension in my pediatric practice. But what do I see even more? I see kids who are depressed, I see kids who are bullied at school, I see kids who are truant from school because of the bullying and - they don’t want to participate in PE!

What does the research show?

Children who become overweight as preschoolers tend to stay overweight throughout childhood and into adolescents. Overweight and obese adolescents tend to remain obese as adults. Preventing obesity can be difficult, but it is MUCH easier than treating it!

Studies suggest that a 10% price increase for beverages through taxation would decrease consumption by about 8-10%

Why not just educate people?

There is NOTHING in soda that is good for you. Do people think there is?

Smoking is bad for you – are there people who think it is good for them?

Health education and behavior change is complex – it works much better to make the healthier choice the easier (and more economical) choice.

Bill Duncan is a longtime volunteer with various hunger organizations in New Jersey. He regularly volunteers at a local soup kitchen and is a volunteer and board member with a food pantry in his hometown of Manalapan.

After undergoing triple bypass surgery last year, Bill wanted to expand his volunteer activities to include the American Heart Association. He read about the current efforts in New Jersey to expand Healthy Corner Store programs in the state that improve food access in underserved communities. This campaign allows him to combine his interest in ending hunger with efforts to decrease heart disease risk in our most vulnerable communities.

More than 200 teens from across Rhode Island marched on the State House as part of the 2015 Zombie Walk for Kick Butts Day on March 18th. They carried the message that tobacco and nicotine use is not for them - and Big Tobacco can't sway their choice to choose health! A smaller group of teens met directly with legislators in a youth-legislator roundtable discussion at the State House, hosted by Rep. Art Handy. They shared their message about teen tobacco use and legislators shared with them how important their voice is in the fight for a tobacco free Rhode Island.

Many thanks to Karina Wood, Director of Tobacco Free Rhode Island, for organizing this great event – and to all the local substance abuse prevention task forces and coalitions that took part and arranged for high school students from their communities to participate. But most of all – thanks to the teen zombies for taking a stand against Big Tobacco!